We all know situations when children play off one parent against the other. Cats can do that, too. More precisely, Henry can do that, too.

I have to get up earlier than my husband since I am going off to work. But he often has a case of the geriatric early bird syndrome sometime around 5 am (even though in his case it is often only a levisomnus interruptus – aka: he needs to go to the bathroom and then back to bed). Anyway, he often feeds Henry when he is up early.

But since Henry is a clever cat, he pesters me later: “Feed me. I am hungry. How dare you get up so late?! Feed me now.” Which I do.

Or I feed him before I leave for work and then Henry pesters my husband for food. “Feed me. I am hungry. How dare you get up so late?! Feed me now.” Which he does.

The problem is, of course, that because of this we will soon have either a very fat cat suffering from severe calorie overdose or a very picky cat who doesn’t need to eat what is put in front of him because he can always hold out for something more to his taste.

So we introduced the minion system. We have three toy minions standing on our coffee maker. Whoever feeds the cat in the morning moves one minion to the tea box standing next to it.

Sounds okay. But since I am often not quite awake before my first cup in the morning, there have been occasions with two minions on the tea box. And a very satisfied cat.